Chapter 223

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Wang Zhanggen is just like this; his stubbornness has practically reached the point of being beyond all reason, the kind that even eight old water buffaloes couldn't drag back.

Wang Xiaohua had already spoken until he was left with no reply and unable to refute, yet he still insisted on holding the banquet.

Once he has set his mind on something, even if others make him realize his mistake, he will still continue on unflinchingly, for no other reason than that others cannot challenge his authority.

Especially in front of his son, he cares even more about this authority, even though this authority has actually long since ceased to exist.

"If you want to hold it, then hold it. I don't care about you anymore. Anyway, I've already made it clear to you — I won't be attending when the time comes."

After saying this, Wang Xiaohua turned around and went back to his own room.

He couldn't be bothered to deal with this stone in a latrine of a biological father — just as smelly and just as hard. He took out his test papers, planning to do a set to suppress the displeasure in his heart.

And outside the living room, seeing Wang Zhanggen and Wang Xiaohua, father and son, quarreling so unpleasantly, Li Xiulan also came to persuade Wang Zhanggen:

"Why not just not hold the banquet? Xiaohua is right; it's just an ordinary final exam, not the college entrance exam. There's nothing worth celebrating. And holding a banquet costs so much money. Although we've saved a bit these years doing masonry, our savings actually aren't much..."

Li Xiulan was calm and gentle, hoping to reason with Wang Zhanggen.

However, Wang Zhanggen slapped the table at this moment:

"Even you oppose me! The more you don't want me to hold it, the more I'm going to hold it!"

Li Xiulan was quite speechless at this; she didn't want to quarrel with Wang Zhanggen.

They've quarreled for most of their lives already; she's tired of quarreling, exhausted from quarreling.

Besides, she also didn't want quarreling to affect the youngest son's studies.

She knew that although Wang Xiaohua had returned home for winter vacation, once home he would stay in his room studying and basically wouldn't go out to play much.

"If you want to hold it, then hold it. I can't be bothered to talk to you."

In the end, Li Xiulan said this sentence in a bad temper, turned around, and walked away.

Wang Zhanggen held a sullen anger in his heart; he was very depressed, very angry, very unconvinced.

Clearly he is the head of this family, so why does no family member support the decisions he makes?

And holding a banquet — although it costs a bit — can bring honor to the whole extended family. Why do they refute him with such tireless effort?

They're unwilling to hold it, don't want to hold it — then he'll hold it precisely because of that. Not only will he hold it, but he'll hold it grandly and gloriously!

So the next day, he started flipping through the almanac, checking for auspicious days to hold the banquet.

He searched for a long time and finally found an auspicious day near the New Year.

The twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month. The almanac said this day is a day of great fortune, very suitable for hosting a banquet. Moreover, this day does not clash with the zodiac signs of the whole family.

So Wang Zhanggen decided right then: hold the banquet on the twentieth of the lunar month.

Wang Zhanggen didn't plan to hold the banquet at a restaurant in town, because town restaurants are more expensive, and it's inconvenient — they'd still have to hire a vehicle to take everyone to town, and the fare would cost a fair amount.

So he planned to hold the banquet at his own home. The courtyard in front of his house has a large empty space, with enough room to set up banquet tables.

When the time comes, everyone will come to his home to eat together; it can also add some festive cheer to the house and bring some good fortune.

Now, from the twentieth of the lunar month, there's only less than half a month left.

Wang Zhanggen felt he must hurry up and get everything arranged properly.

Holding a banquet first requires notifying people, confirming roughly how many will come, then hiring a chef who specializes in rural flowing-water banquets to cook, selecting dishes, finalizing how many tables, and so on.

A whole series of matters — although not difficult — are quite tedious.

Especially the matter of notifying people.

Although the countryside doesn't have so many formalities, and there's no need for formal invitations.

But not everyone in the countryside has a mobile phone. To notify them, you have to go door to door.

So that very evening, Wang Zhanggen started doing this.

He brought a small notebook and set off for Zoujia Cuanxiang. At each household, he chatted for a while, then stated his intention to host a banquet on New Year's Eve to treat guests, asking whether they would come and how many people would come. Those with children must remember to bring the children too — with children it's lively, it's auspicious.

This one evening Wang Zhanggen visited ten-odd households. Shangou Village now still has fifty or sixty households living there permanently. Additionally, familiar friends in the neighboring few villages also needed to be called. Besides that, his own relatives and friends even more needed to be notified. Whether they come or not is their business; if you don't go notify them, that's disrespecting them.

So this matter of notifying people alone was enough to keep Wang Zhanggen busy for a week.

But he wasn't busy with this all day either. During the day he still went to work as usual. Only after evening, after eating dinner, would he bring a notebook and go do this.

Because during the day everyone has to work — some do farm work, some go to town to work in small factories, some go into the mountains for mountain labor. During the day the village isn't fully gathered; only in the evening would people be more gathered.

After bustling for seven days, Wang Zhanggen finally finished this matter.

He tallied it up: in this village, confirmed to come are fifty-odd people, not too sure are ten-odd, children are ten-odd.

The neighboring few villages: confirmed to come are forty-odd, not too sure ten-odd, children also seven or eight.

Relatives and friends: all who could be notified were notified. Except those working away from home, the rest still living in nearby villages and towns basically all said they'd come. Also those with children would all bring the children, because it's already winter vacation, children don't have school. To freeload a meal, they'd definitely bring them along.

Wang Zhanggen thought: just count those not-too-sure ones as able to come too!

Under this situation, he tallied the numbers and found that possibly a hundred seventy or eighty people might come. Ten per table — that's seventeen or eighteen tables.

The number of children isn't too certain. Some have several children, some only one or two. Wang Zhanggen only asked if they'd bring children; he couldn't very well ask how many children they'd bring.

So in the end he felt: might as well just do twenty tables directly.

Reserve a few extra tables, so that when guests come there won't be no seats — that would be embarrassing and discourteous.

After tallying the numbers and finalizing the number of banquet tables.

Wang Zhanggen went to look for a rural flowing-water banquet chef.

Generally, some restaurants in town all do rural flowing-water banquets.

So Wang Zhanggen specially took a day off for himself, used this day to personally ride his motorcycle to town to search for a flowing-water banquet master.

He went from restaurant to restaurant asking, and even called the flowing water banquet ads posted on utility poles to inquire.

After asking seven or eight places, comparing the options, he finally settled on it, having the boss of a place in town called "Hongyun Restaurant" take on this matter.

For the same dishes, this boss gave the most affordable price, and was very easy to deal with, with a comparatively friendly attitude, so Wang Zhanggen chose him.

Actually, while searching for a flowing water banquet chef in town, Wang Zhanggen passed by Niu Chunsheng's "New Era Restaurant" several times, and he hesitated inside whether to go in and ask about the price.

But thinking it over in the end, Niu Chunsheng's New Era Restaurant mainly handles reception for government personnel, their restaurant is very high-end, they might not even do flowing water banquets, and even if they were willing, the price would certainly be very expensive, how could a rural poor person like him afford it?

If he went to ask, Niu Chunsheng might give him a discount, and help him handle the banquet well.

But he just didn't dare to even go in and ask.

When it comes down to it, it's still a poverty mindset at work.

The sensitivity and inferiority complex hidden in his inner heart made Wang Zhanggen very averse to contact with those he saw as "successful people"; he assumed as a matter of course that contact with "successful people" would make him inferior, would make him lose face and dignity.

And this is actually not just Wang Zhanggen thinking this way; many poor people universally have this kind of thinking in their inner hearts.